Costume Information

Worn also at: MCM expo May 2011, London Film Festival con July 2011, Minamicon 19 March 2013

This is a crazy but typical cosplay (for myself) which I'm considering to try but I'm serious bout this character! she's one of my favorite Disney heroins ^^ and I feel as though I can relate to her in some aspects (aside from the obvious culture =b); such as being super clumsy - Ok hopefully not SO clumsy that I'd set my match maker on fire, but clumsy nevertheless XD

UPDATE 28/12/10

Ok it has been decided I will go through with the match maker dress as this is a bit more challenging and prettier than the green one ^_~ only thing is I'm gonna plan to not have a very white face as it might look a little strange on me and am gonna incorporate oriental aspects (ie chinese brocade patterns) to the cosplay rather than do an 'accurate' interpretation but still make it know that it's still Mulan (if that makes any sense at all... hopefully my plan doesn't fail ^^;;;) ... I realized I'm gonna be putting a bit more work on myself but what the heck - for the sake of the china! XD

UPDATE 1/3/11

Finally, I have most of the outfit done! I'm still waiting for my wig to come through (my actual hair length is too short for this cosplay at the moment) hopefully when the wig does, it is going to Minamicon, making an early appearance as I planned this for the May expo '11 originally! ^o^ this outfit was difficult in the sense how I had to use quite a few pattern pieces and I've never worked with crepe satin or brocade before - don't think it turned out too bad though ^^;;
Oh that note, I did intend to make an obi bow back for this but I think I'm gonna put that on hold til I finish Mai's outfit as she is in desperate need of priority and attention atm - I'm determined to take her to Minamicon! >:D

Hopefully I'm gonna wear this at LFCC too - BUT one huge problem ... it's gonna be so so warm and am gonna find difficulties sitting down with the corset boning T^T ... I literally paid a price for this outfit LOL

UPDATE 20/3/11

It was amazing to be in the shoes of Mulan for this day at Minamicon - I was almost collapsing at the amount of nice comments I got from people bout my cosplay ^_~ There's one I'll never forget -

"Too Skinny!" XD (Courtesy of the wonderful Street-angel who made this weekend enjoyably hilarious) lol

Oh yeah! and I give my thanks also to Crystalneko for telling me bout the bench at the back - it was a great little spot to take photos - THANK YOU! XX

UPDATE 30/06/11

Wearing it for the last time this year as part of a Disney group masquerade at LFCC - GODAMN I'M NERVOUS!! but so excited! <3

UPDATE 04/03/13

Less than 2 years has this cosplay been sitting in my cupboard, I decided to slightly revive it when Street-angel said, wouldn't it be funny if I was the matchmaker? and well I bursted out laughin cos I could c it XD soon this idea became a real live skit and OMG! I actually got an award for it 8D The skit actually came out quite ridiculous cos the props we used was so modern and I did screw up the timing in places but I believe it worked XD

Skit vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54rkf9qdFoM

Comments

aa!!! My brother and I are obsessed with this film right now for some reason;; then again, it is very very awesome!
I LOVE Mulan my dear! She's also such a good role model no> <3 You'll look amazing as her!!

LOL it's ok ^^ Thank you!! I love this film to bits! I just watched it recently and it's sparked my liking towards the film and I was like - I should try this.... even though it seems very typical this cosplay... ^^;;

@kirarayumi - Haha thank you - admittedly I can't take much credit for the make up though cos my friend is more of an 'expert' at applying - I simply suggested how I wanted it and made sure it wasn't 'white'

aww thank you Jay ^^ I have actually got a Mushu toy lying around somewhere cos I too loved the movie that much when I was a child ^^ though I'm unsure if I'll wear this for the expo - there's another outfit I wanna see if I can make, if not then Mulan is going to the expo!

haha not the full 'geisha' look - I don't think I'll have the confidence to walk around with a white face lol it's more of a 'contemporary' make up for Mulan =b and aww thank you so much sweetie - I'm delaying this so badly - gotta get this finished quick! DX

Thanks so much guys for the lovely comments everyone - these comments really make me feel excited to wear this next week! ^_~

@ animekid - hehe if this cosplay is not worn out after its first appearance in Minamicon then I can't wait to wear it again at LFCC - I'm also expecting to wear this at May expo too making three appearances during the year - hopefully that isn't too much ^^;;;
@ crystalneko - I may need to get my friend to restyle the wig - the bangs hanging at the front may need to be pulled back and plus the bun needs to be retied again... hopefully it'll still look ok and stay up ^o^ xx

Hello lovely! It was so nice to meet you at Minami! You looked so cute and pretty both days! (I loved your Mai Valentine too!) It was really nice to have met you! I hope you had a wonderful time and perhaps we can plan a Disney collective soon!~<3

This is absolutely beautiful, I like the fabirc choices and you really suit the character.
I really wished I said this in person and really wanted a picture of you, but I was holding a massive prop at the time which make it kinda akward to approach people.

Man there's a lot I have to reply to lol so I'll try and make it short ^^;;
First of all thank you to all of you for the comments - words cannot describe how thankful I am to receive them ^_~

@duskanight - aww don't be silly - your fairy Mulan cosplay is soo adorable :3 x
@ monkey - it was lovely meeting you too sweetie and yes lets definitely plan a huge Disney group together for one of the cons! >:D your Rapunzel was soo soo cute! ^^
@ street-angel - LOL I'm gonna remember that line for the rest of my life XD
@ J-mercuryuk - I was hoping my fabric choice would work and glad you like it :3 loved talking to you ^_~
@ wildarms_rudy - aww that's one of the sweetest comments I ever got :3 thank u 4 being awesome too ^_~
@ tsuchinoko - thank u ^^ your photograph skills are amazing! lovely meeting u x
@ ichigo-chan - aww no worries, I understand ^_~ I was planning to rewear Mulan at May expo anyways :3 and that prop did look heavy but very well done ^^ Shame we couldn't talk more though but it was a lovely first encounter x

You where one of the highlights for me on Sunday! I love Mulan, she's my favourite Disney princess and you did a wonderful job with the costume! Sorry for making you dig out your cosplay bits after the closing ceremony, but I really wanted a picture of your costume, as I simply loved it!

O.o WOW thank you thank you thank you!!! I never expected to get this many comments even after my Mulan debut ^///^ I'm speechless with these comments - really guys, thank you so so much my lovelys! *bows* I give honour to you all :D

To-Do List

Journal

Obi inspired bow (Posted 13th March 2011)

To give this cosplay more of an original and contemporary twist, I decided to make a bow for the back as from behind, the cosplay looked kinda plain - I just hope I didn't over do it &gt;.&lt; but I really like my bow ^_~

Bodice progress (Posted 1st March 2011)

Been putting this cosplay on hold for like a month now but seriously wanted to finish this! ... one thing that is certain - wrong pattern = wrong look ... this is what happened - the top has taken me longer than expected due to this pattern problem. Anyways, it's done - all I have to do to hold it together is sew some snap fasteners to the garment and have to remember it's left over right - if I did it the other way round, it will mean something very unpleasant to the oriental culture ^^;;

Epic sleeves (Posted 28th February 2011)

Last night I stayed up sewing the sleeve pattern together - I wanted to create a cascade effect but due to my inexperience, I had to result to creating &amp;#039;bell, wizard&amp;#039; sleeves instead - they&amp;#039;re so huge but I don&amp;#039;t think they turned out too bad ^^; the inside is cotton lining breaking the whole satin run I've got going on with the outfit - I fear if I used satin for the lining of the sleeves I'd be sweating even more buckets ... I should really consider this more as a winter cosplay... what am I thinking wearing this for the summer???

sketch of back (Posted 7th February 2011)

Wasn't gonna upload this but need some suggestions - to make the cosplay more 'oriental' I wanted to make an obi butterfly bow back - nothing special just two bows ^^

Band - hemming in progress (Posted 7th February 2011)

Cut a strip of red fabric, zigzag stitched the edges and pinned the thing over the annoying and ugly edges

Red dress hemming (Posted 7th February 2011)

If there's one thing I learnt as a cosplayer is that we HATE raw edges... ¬¬ so what I've first done is made the red and white dress out of crepe satin and chinese brocade (red fabric same as band on corset to match. Then to reduce the bulk, I'm combining both the white and red together to form one (hopefully) lovely dress ^^;;

Corset (Posted 4th February 2011)

Whoo! I have curves! XD Like to see the matchmaker say "Too skinny" to my face now lol - first time making a corset too ^0^ then again there was really no magic to it - interfacing combined with boning, cotton lining and some gorgeous butterfly printed chinese brocade ^_~

Beads (Posted 1st February 2011)

Got them through! :D

Make up test trial 1 (Posted 30th January 2011)

As well as the wig, the make up is just as important - I'm definitely not going for the whole white "geisha" look cos I don't really want my face to stand out like a light bulb but instead I'm gonna try and bring out a more contemporary feel to Mulan - I've cropped half my face as I don't do very well on full face shots XD

Wig test trial 1.. (Posted 30th January 2011)

The first of a wig tests (courtesy of my friend helping me -^^-) .. as I couldn't get on with my actual outfit cos of pattern piece construction issues, I asked my friend to aid me with this instead ... wig is a mess but as stated before - it's the first of many trials... but hopefully you get the basic idea .. t

Comb (Posted 11th January 2011)

Feeling a little drained of energy today, I decided to also begin the comb as it was another 'simple' part of the outfit. Researching into how existing Mulan cosplayers made the comb, (Some used sculpey, some missed it out and some with an artificial lilly) - I chose to use this last method to make the flower stand out - however, a lilly consists of 6 petals so I changed it to five - I'm not entirely sure if Mulan's flower is a lilly; some say it's a lotus instead - literally all I did was add a bit of fray check and gold paint to the the edges - til I get the comb piece, I'm debating which sized lilly to use

Start! (Posted 11th January 2011)

FINALLY getting some free time to myself after much 'education based work', I began by doing a simple thing - the scarf. Brought some organdy and hemmed it like mad.. not difficult or much but it's start ^^;; The hardest stuff is yet to come...

Robe ref (Posted 10th January 2011)

Not a full figure but you get the basic idea of the outfit construction...